Class 33. The Dark Triad of Personality MACHIAVELLIAN NARCISSIST PSYCHOPATH The Dark Triad.

Class 33

The Dark Triadof Personality

MACHIAVELLIAN

NARCISSIST

PSYCHOPATH

The Dark Triad

First distinguished by

Paulhus & Williams (2002)

Narcissist: egotistical attention-seeker

Machiavellian: strategic manipulation

Psychopath: impulsive thrill-seeker

What is the common factor?

callousness

CLINICAL LEVEL-serious problems-requires professional intervention

SUB-CLINICAL LEVEL-mild version, can manage in everyday society-BUT maladaptive because aversive to others

Psychopath

Clinical versionkey features:

impulsive & callous

Keeps committing crimesNever learnsMost of life spent in prison

The Subclinical Version

Successful psychopath: milder or paired with a desirable attribute

Has avoided prison – so far

Dark Niches: Bullies, nasty bosses

Hockey Goons

- paid big salary to be nasty - often nasty outside of sport

e.g.,

- drill instructors in military- paid to toughen you up

NarcissistNarcissist

Clinical Version

SYNDROME

Sense of superiorityConstant braggingFeels entitled to superior treatmentNeeds attention

WHY?Deep insecurity

Sub-clinical VersionSub-clinical Version

SYNDROME

Begins with conceit?

Gifted with desirable attribute

e.g., admired celebrities

Acquired narcissism?

Can encourage destructive behavior

Examples

Lindsay LohanKanye West

The Machiavellian

Niccolo Machiavelli

historyAdvisor to the Medici family in Italy (ca.

1500)

To succeed in politics, you must manipulate others

TACTICS: e.g., flatter important people

EXCUSE: Most people are ignorant and deserve to be manipulated

Sun-Tzu:

The Art of War(ca. 500 B.C.)

Ancient Precedent

Financial manipulator

Bernie Madoff

Relations among the DARK TRIAD:

Q: are they actually the same person?A: No, but positively correlated

Q: Are they mutually exclusive?A: No, they can be found in the same person.

OUR RESEARCH

Designed to differentiate the Dark Triad

Used questionnaires to predict actual behavior

WHO CHEATS ?

A. Copying answers during exams

Subclinical psychopaths

B. Plagiarizing term papers•Machiavellians

WHO AGGRESSES?

Jones & Paulhus study (2013)

white noise paradigm

Advertised as Competitive Game Study

Results

Narcissists aggressed after being insulted

Psychopaths aggressed after being attacked

CONCLUSIONS

Summary of D3 Features

Narcissists brag

Psychopaths impulsively hurt others & don’t care

Machiavellians manipulate to get what they want

All are callous

They can co-occur

Mohammar Gadhafi

Adolph Hitler

Josef Stalin

The newest member

The sadistic The sadistic personalitypersonality

Sexual Sadism

-from theMarquis de Sade

-popular novel

50 Shades of Grey

Criminal Sadism

-Clifford Olson

Political Sadism

-Vlad the Impaler

EVERYDAY SADISM

-non sexual

-non criminal

Abusive prison guards

Cage Fighting

films, television, video games

1. Clockwork Orange

2. Sopranos

3. Grand Theft Auto

EVERYDAY (NON-SEXUAL SADISM)CAUSES

Sadism encouraged by authorities

Encouraged by in-group favoritism

Encouraged by sports norms

Personal revenge

Question:How to show sadism in the psychology

laboratory?

Answer:Show that Sadism questionnaire predicts

amount of bug crunching

30 percent willing to crunch bugs in a grinder

Give me more !

30 percent willing to work for opportunity to blast innocent partner with loud white noise

RESULTS

Those who score high on the Everyday Sadism Scale will be more willing to crunch the bug themselves

Also those scoring high on RWA agreed if experimenter insisted

(cf. Milgram)

OTHER RESULTS

Similar results for males and femalesCommon enjoyment of all violent mediaPredicted by Everyday Sadism scaleLinked to animal cruelty, fire-lighting, and

vandalismSexual sadism only slightly relatedUnrelated to self-harmRelatively independent of Dark Triad !

CONCLUSIONS

We tend to lump together bad personalities

To understand dark characters, more differentiation is needed

DARK TETRAD

Maybe more…………..